Quoth Christopher Walken

Since Halloween is soon upon us, it doesn’t surprise me that this video has been going around recently: Christopher Walken reciting Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Raven”

I cut my literary-horror teeth on Poe; in fact, Poe has been a huge influence on my own writing (as is the case, I’m sure, for almost every modern American horror writer). I even hesitate to say that I love this poem, because it is so commonly known and admired that I feel like I’m a cliche for doing so–as if, to retain some sort of literati street cred, I should turn my nose up at this one and tell you that that you should really read this other obscure Mesopotamian or German or Norse poem, or whatever (but really, if you like Poe’s fiction, you should check out Johann Ludwig Tieck). But I’m not that well-versed, and even if I were, I would probably still love “The Raven.” And who wouldn’t (besides Emerson)? Beneath the dark and haunting imagery is a genius rhythm that plants those lyrics deep in the cracks of your brain (the rhythm he likely stole borrowed from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, “Lady Geraldine’s Courtship,” but that one is almost four times as long, and a chick flick besides). “The Raven” was like a creepy 19th century rap song. So, for your viewing and listening pleasure, here some more readings of “The Raven” I found on YouTube.
http://youtu.be/yb-hwaKWx7I
I like to listen to the next one and imagine Mufasa reading “The Raven” to Simba at night:

And it’s hard to talk of Poe without thinking of Vincent Price (whether you want to or not)–

The following video is actually my favorite out of all of these. I love the animation, and it makes a lot of sense to precede “The Raven” with Poe’s earlier “Lenore.”

I hope you enjoyed all this poetry as much as I did! (See what I did there?) Let me know in the comments which one was your favorite, or if you know of any other good ones out there! And don’t forget to join my email list!

Mailing list up and running!

For those of you who want to have more insider access to my news, I’ve started a newsletter that will bring you updates straight to your inbox! I plan to send updates on my upcoming book progress, as well as info on other stories I may be writing or getting published soon.
But wait, there’s more!!!
If you sign up for my mailing list, you might just receive some free stuff along the way…
I have links in the sidebar and the footer of this blog where you can always go to sign up, or you can click here. Hope to hear from you!

Hello world…from my phone!

Should be sleeping, since I’m working tomorrow, but I can’t.

My wife (Emily) has been telling me that I need to start blogging, especially since I’m working on getting my book out by next year. So…here goes! I’ve wanted to blog, but stuck by that “I don’t have anything out yet, what can I say? Who will read it?” problem. But Tim Grahl says do it anyways. Maybe it’s better if only a few read this post…but in the future, maybe I will have followers that adore me and my groundbreaking works of literature! Lol. Am I allowed to say “lol” on a blog? I’m typing this from my smartphone, after all (so give me a break if I overlook some autocorrects).

So, surprise to you if you know me, sinxe (I meant “since,” but “sinxe” is cooler so I’m leaving it) I haven’t told all of my friends, but yes, I have abookcoming out, it still needs some work but I hope to have it on Amazon by spring 2016.

What else? Well, I am trying to pimp out a handful of short stories here and there to whomever might take them. Most recently I did have some flash fiction published by Deep South Magazine. It isn’t super prestigious but the website looks pretty sharp, not like some old GeoCities page posing as an ezine (anybody remember GeoCities? Anybody?).

What else will I blog about? Who knows? I guess maybe some updates on the book’s progress–maybe I’ll even tell you what it is about! Maybe. I have some ideas for the website, too, maybe put up some links that have been helpful to me as a struggling writer. Hopefully not quite as struggling for too much longer. And I love to recommend books to my friends, and I guess reviews and recommendations work well on these types of blogs, right? I suppose I’ll just figure it out as I go, like a first draft, except I can’t go back and rewrite everything. Hey, it’s all good though. I know I ain’t no Stephen King or Hugh Howey, but I am who God made me and we’ll see where this goes. If by some miracle you’ve stumbled on here, please, hit the contact button up there and let me know I’m not talking into empty cyberspace!

(anybody remember when they called it cyberspace? Anybody?)

Peace,

Timothy G. Huguenin